The Amazing Adventure of Peregrine: ToT Fanfic
by CandyOverlord
Summary: Peregrine is a part time circus perform part time smuggler, but when a deal goes sour peregrine must find a place to hide. Where she ends up is a place that would change her forever.
1. Ch1: Words that Whisper

Chapter 1: Words that Whisper on the Wings of Birds

_Don't fall. Breathe._ Peregrine perched precariously on the back of a series of chairs stacked thirty-five feet in the air. Around her the crowd was alive with catcalls and cheers. Some urged her to fall and tumble to her death, others called out to hold out to the end. A mischievous smile crossed her lips before creeping back behind her jesters grin. She jerked to the side as if to fall, tearing a collective gasp from her audience.

As a senior hand balancer in the Shining Star Circus, Peregrine was allowed a few leniencies when performing. However, balanced with her hands on the chair and her feet on her head a death drop's height from the ground was not where the ring master preferred she take those leniencies. Charlie the strong man, who was currently acting as her catcher, briefly furrowed his brow while retaining his stage smile. She waggled her eyebrows back at him. In this silent communication he was warning her not to take risks and she was reminding him he was not her keeper.

The crescendo in the music around her signaled the finale of her act. With great care she returned to a standing position on the chair. A golden ribbon tied her hair into a large bun at the nape of her neck. On either side of her Reign and Doblin swung lazy arcs on their trapezes. The two brother's caused her no end of trouble in and out of the circus act. Master of pranks, Reign was the source of many snakes in the toilet, plastic spiders in the bed, and a rubber cockroach poised to jump out of the fridge. Shorter than his brother he had brownish red hair and a light tan that brushed his skin. Doblin, on the other hand found much amusement in leering at the female staff in the circus. Even now he was eyeing her backside with an appreciative stare. Doblin did not make wearing a skin tight leotard any easier. She only hoped he couldn't get a good view through the glare of many colored the sequins that adorned it.

Peregrine's heart was beating quickly with excitement. This was the hardest trick in their repertoire, but they made it look like their easiest. The goal of the trick was to have Doblin flip from his trapeze, snatch the ribbon from her hair and land safely in the grasp of his brother Reign. As easy as the trick looked they were all thirty-five feet in the air and a single misstep could send them tumbling to the ground.

Peregrine trusted the brothers with her life. She prepared for the stunt by moving into a standing split with her head straight ahead and her arms curved behind her like wings. She bobbed her chin slightly to signal that she was ready. Peregrine heard the trapeze speed up with soft whooshing sounds. Her gaze was focused and she remained perfectly still as heard Doblin leap. A piercing red laser beam from the audience nailed her in the eyes, causing her to jerk her head up away from the intrusion. Instead of snatching the ribbon from her hair Doblin's hand connected with the side of her head. Her focus shattered like porcelain and she tumbled over the edge. She couldn't breathe, her hands clawed through the air grasping for purchase. The ribbon snagged on the chair and her long silver hair cascaded out like ethereal butterfly wings. She was falling, as fear seized her mind a thread of panicked words wove through the darkness.

_I don't want to die._

Peregrine was falling fast. Her instincts for survival overrode all other thoughts. She kicked out one of her legs and hooked one of the chairs in the tower. The chair jerked loose from the tower sending the upper chairs scattering into a rain upon the floor. Peregrine was tumbling now smacking against chairs sending them flying every which way. The platform holding the tower came at her in a rush, she tried to flail away but her shoulder caught the edge and smashed against it with a wet crack. The ground was the last stop. She closed her eyes and braced for the impact. At once all momentum stopped as Peregrine was snatched from death by a pair of oversized arms.

"Peregrine! Speak ta me lass!" Charlie's gruff voice made her eyes open warily. She wasn't dead, but she knew that as soon as the adrenaline started to fade she'd be in a world of pain.

"Nice catch." She breathed, wheezing a bit as she tried to catch her breath. "Im hurt Charlie, Im unable to walk and in a few minutes I'll be screaming in pain." Peregrine knew the audience needed to be assured everything was still rosy in their world. She would bear the fires of pain long enough to smile and wave.

Charlie hoisted her up on his shoulder so she wouldn't have to stand then grinned wide and waved at the audience. Peregrine followed suit and even blew a few kisses to her fans. With quick precision the next set of acts started and Peregrine was carted out of the ring on Charlie's shoulders.

As soon as she was out of earshot of the audience she sobbed and moaned with pain. Her body was on fire, every nerve screamed out in pain. White hot brands stabbed her shoulder, at best it was dislocated. She didn't want to think about a worst case scenario. Her mind was already beginning to turn off and she didn't even make it inside the flaps of the medical tent before she slipped into darkness.


	2. Ch2: Loss that Screams

Chapter 2: The Loss that Screams in the Dark

Peregrine was floating now. Her body didn't burn anymore; rather it was like she was lying in bathwater that was far too hot. She was still in so much pain, but it was far away and couldn't reach her. Peregrine's eyes sluggishly opened to take in the scenery around her. She was in the medical tent, but there was machinery there that was unfamiliar. An IV dripped with clear fluid and a machine that monitored her heart bip-bipped with soft rhythm. She turned her head slowly to the side so she could see what more had changed.

Dozing in an oversized chair, Mimi the ringmaster's wife sat by her bedside as if she expected peregrine to wake at any moment. The fuzzy blanket patterned with stars Peregrine had given her was draped haphazardly over Mimi's shoulders. On the table beside Mimi a calendar gave the date of November 14, exactly one week after her accident and four days after her birthday. Flowers, presents and get well soon cards littered the small table nearly pushing the calendar off. Peregrine tried to reach out to one, but her body was not listening and all she managed was a violent twitch. She began to panic and tried to move more of her body with little success.

"Oh! Peregrine, you're awake!" a familiar voice called out to her. The cheerful call calmed Peregrine's panic and she managed to turn her head to see the circus nurse Akari. "Careful dear! You still haven't burned off all the sedative, you shouldn't be moving so soon." Akari smiled down at her with such sugary care Peregrine knew something was wrong. Before she could ask the door of the medical tent flipped open and in walked someone Peregrine did not want to see. "Cousin!" The silver-haired self-proclaimed prince of stars shouted at her.

"Skye." Peregrine slathered the words in malice and spite. Her cousin was tall, model gorgeous, and a pain in her ass. It wasn't that she didn't like her cousin, but he brought in dangerous work. The circus she gave her life to was just a cover for the band of smugglers that she worked with. Skye was the thief that initially swiped the goods. It was their job to make sure they found their way to the hands of the man with the deepest pockets.

"Aw Perry! Is that anyway to treat family my darling angel?" Skye perched himself on the edge of her bed, and to Peregrine's chagrin, beeped her square on the nose. She lurched her hand up to smack that smug grin off his face, he was too quick for her drugged reflexes to peg. So instead she sulked.

"Get out weasel! Haven't you got some skirts to chase?" She snapped at Skye. He didn't seem to mind and responded by swaggering out of the room. Just as he left he grinned wide and winked at her. "Judging by that temper you should make a full recovery."

Akari flinched at this and Peregrine knew the worst was coming. "I'm not going to be okay am I?" She whispered as fear frosted her heart." Akari laid her hand gently on Peregrine's cheek. "No baby. You're not." A wet pain-laced tear rolled down Peregrine's cheek. Panic returned to her in a rush, she started to cry.

"H-How bad?" She choked, willing herself to be strong. "There was a lot of damage to your shoulder and arm. The bone was shattered and we had to take you to surgery to fix what we could. I'm afraid even with physical therapy your arm will only be a third as strong as it was. So…" She hesitated then and peregrine could see the disgust in Akari's face as she continued on. "So… There is not a way for you to perform again in the circus. If… If you cant find another way to be useful you will have to leave. I'm sorry Peregrine!" Akari threw herself around Peregrine and began to sob with her.

Peregrine knew this was how the circus worked. They ran in dangerous territory at times and everyone depended on one another to pull their own weight. If you couldn't run with the pack you were culled. Even though she knew this, Peregrine felt a loss so great she could only stare ahead at the future that was a yawning void ahead of her.

"Don't cry Akari… Everything will be okay." She lied.


	3. Ch3: More to Heal

Chapter 3: There's More to Heal than Muscle and Bone

_Tick tick tick_. The clock was about to receive a face full of shoe if it didn't stop its wretched ticking. Peregrine had spent six weeks in the medic tent with very limited freedom. Akari had insisted she stay under her care so that she could pull a miracle out of her arse and make Peregrine well. After a long healing cry Akari had been filled with the fires of motivation. "I'm going to make you whole again Perrin! If I cant then we'll both leave together!" Peregrine was touched by her best friends motivation, but after a long look inside herself she knew she wasn't going to get better. Perhaps, she didn't really want to get better.

This was not her first bout in the medical tent, but it was the first for a performance related injury. As a smuggler she encountered less than savory individuals. High rollers that would rather pay a group of thugs to take her out than pay the price of the art she smuggled. Rivals that would shoot her for the prizes she carried and leave her body to rot. There were also bounty hunters that would prefer her dead rather than alive when they claimed their reward. So many friends had been lost she wondered if what they were doing was worth it. Peregrine had been born into this life. The circus was the only family she had and by the tattoo on her back she was branded to them. That was the only reason she kept working, but if they could drop her so fast because of an injury… was it worth it to get better?

Peregrine watched Akari scuttle around the room chittering to herself about all the useful exercises she would put Peregrine through. Akari was the one who was given hard the job of watching them die. She was a first rate nurse, but most of the time her patients were beyond saving. Akari had been holding her sister Karen in her arms as Karen bled to death from a bullet to the chest. A buyer had betrayed the band sent to sell a rare statue of the Goddess to him. Peregrine had been fourteen at the time and it had been her first run. The buyer pulled the gun on her, because she was the most helpless of the crew. If Karen hadn't taken the bullet in her place, Peregrine would have been the one to die.

For Akari she would get better. Peregrine owed her that.

"Hello my lovely sirens of the sea! I'm sure you missed me terribly!" Skye sauntered in wearing his traditional saucy grin and mischievous flair. Akari blushed sweetly at the comment and fluttered her eyes a bit at the handsome intrusion. Peregrine pulled the spoon from her cereal bowl that was on the table and made a game of trying to catapult cheerios into Skye's lovely silver locks.

"You're early old man," She griped at him as he made a valiant effort to dodge the Cheerio hail. "You're not supposed to be delivering for another week." Skye glared at her from behind Akari his meat shield.

"I'm not old my hair is naturally this color that we share. And why do you always throw things at me darling cousin?." He growled as he moved with Akari to get closer to her.

"It's how I show my love." She countered. "Now answer the question or I start throwing bigger things." Already she reached for the solid teal flower vase that sat heavily at her bedside.

Skye sighed with the weight of the world on his shoulders. "One day I will invent a technique that will allow me to freeze women in place, and then I won't have to deal with your tantrums anymore." Still he smiled and from his pocket he drew out a small finely wrapped present.

"You, Sleeping Beauty, were snoring through your birthday. After all the effort this bauble took to retrieve I wasn't about to let it out of my sight till it was in your hands." He said rather proud of himself.

"Its not stolen I hope?" She asked tentatively. Skye shook his head and with a sly grin replied. "Of course it's stolen but its not missing. You can wear it in broad daylight and no one will care." Peregrine's expression dripped with annoyed skepticism. She unwrapped the gift as if it was unsavory and she didn't want to be contaminated by it. Skye looked amused at her mannerisms but wisely did not comment.

Inside the box was a necklace with three tear drops gracefully descending from the main body of it's chain. In the middle of the chain pendant a red jewel sparkled and twinkled from the gold setting in which it lay. Peregrine narrowed her eyes in scrutiny of the gift. Upon further inspection the golden necklace was gold-plated and the jewel in the center was made of some sort of laminate. "It's a fake!" she cried out indignant at the gall of her mischievous cousin. "What madness overtook you that you thought stealing a fake necklace was a good idea? If you're going to commit a crime at least steal something worth stealing!" She lectured him punctuating each sentence with a whack to the back of his pompous head.

Skye made his escape as gracefully as he could after peregrine's ego-deflating assault. "Well no one will bother you if you wear it!" He smirked once again adopting a haughty tone. "If it ever causes you trouble I invite you to seek vengeance upon me." He left the room snickering to himself.

Peregrine turned to Akari "For some reason I don't like how he said that." Akari just giggled. "Oh come on Perrin, its not like he meant anything by it!" It was then Peregrine felt a very cold chill.


	4. Ch4: Mirror rorriM

Chapter 4: Mirror rorriM

The faux-ruby sparkled radiantly in the moon light as Peregrine limped her way to the fortune teller's tent. Knowing that it was a fake actually made Peregrine feel better about wearing it. Skye was right, no one would pay attention to a fake necklace. His last comment had left her feeling ill at ease so she was going to visit her trusted friend. At the end of a row of plain white tents, a small black and gold teepee had been erected. Her friend was the resident fortune teller and her name was Valeriah.

As Peregrine entered the tent she saw Valeriah holding her infant daughter tightly while Barney the ringmaster screamed at her. "You know the rules Val! She must be branded with our mark by her first birthday!" Barney's round aging face had turned the color of stewed beets as he unleashed a torrent of rage upon the stalwart fortune teller.

"You will not own her like you do the rest of us. She will not become like us." Val quietly told him while looking down at her baby girl. Tiny baby Talia seemed undisturbed by Barney's outburst and was busy trying to grab her mother's dangling silver star earrings.

Barney grabbed Valeriah's arm hard enough to bruise it and put his face so close to hers that they were almost touching. "She gets branded, or you will give her up Valeriah! You have two months before her birthday. Decide wisely!" His whisper was harsh and threatening. Before she was allowed to respond he turned on his heel and jarred Peregrine aside as he stomped out of the teepee.

Peregrine watched as Val nuzzled her nose into baby Talia's tiny hand. Talia looked like a softer copy of her mother. They both shared coffee colored skin, with thick cocoa brown hair and strong features. The difference was in their eyes. Valeriah's eyes were a tawny golden color, and Talia's eyes were milk chocolate.

"Is this a bad time Valeriah? I could come back…" She muttered hesitantly. Barney was a force to be reckoned with and literally held all their lives in his hand. There were two reasons all the members of the circus wore identical tattoos on their back. One was to bind them together as one family, a bond that was supposed to transcend blood. The other was to be able to hunt down those who had repudiated their pack. To leave was to be hunted down like an animal and slaughtered without hesitation. No one crossed Barney.

"I already knew you were coming. I've written you a letter and I've hidden it well. You can read it, but the catch is you have to find it." Valeriah cooed as if talking only to her baby daughter and not to the fully grown peregrine. Everyone in the Shining Star Circus trusted Valeriah's visions of the future. If she told you to do something you did it without question even if it meant giving up your life for someone else. When Peregrine was smaller she had asked Valeriah why she let some of their family die. Valeriah looked very sad, but she explained to Peregrine that some people needed to die so that a lot more may live. To Peregrine's eyes it seemed that was a small comfort to Val's heart.

"Your pendant is pretty, but it looks dirty little Perrin." Valeriah said although she still hadn't looked at Peregrine, she was gazing intently on baby Talia as if she was memorizing the planes of her face. "I came to ask a question Val, not talk about cheap jewelry." Val chuckled as she shook a rattle above Talia. Her daughter cooed and giggled reaching up to grasp at the rattle. "It would not look cheap if you cleaned the filth off Perrin. My cleaning solution is on the top shelf, swish your necklace around in it and its true beauty will be revealed from beneath the dirt." Peregrine furrowed her brow and stomped her foot while her cheeks became red and she looked about to throw a tantrum. "I didn't come here for advice about jewelry I have a question." Val finally looked up at Peregrine with mirth sparkling in her golden eyes. "Oh? What is it you want to ask?"

Peregrine put her hands on her hips and opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. She snapped her open maw closed and looked completely stunned. She had been so worked up about not being able to ask her question she completely forgotten what her question was. So instead she asked a different question. "Why won't you brand Talia?" Valeriah was unperturbed by her question and returned her steady gaze to her daughter's face. "Oh, you'll find out tomorrow. Goodnight Peregrine, don't forget to clean your jewelry."

Peregrine was dumbstruck. She recovered quickly swiping the cleaner from the top shelf and hobbling out the tent as fast as her crutches could take her. Valeriah was all-knowing, but she could be a real pain in the butt sharing that knowledge. Peregrine stopped and looked at her necklace. There was not a smudge or dirt speck in sight, there shouldn't be any reason to clean it. She glanced down at the bottle in her hand, in Val's fine script were the words "Trust Me."


End file.
